Lawn mower attachment



F@ E3, 3940. Q Q TQDD ggs LAWN MOWER ATTAGHMENT Filed Sept. 26, 1939 2Sheets-Sheet l Ugg iin-g!! @Howl/m Feb. R39 E94@ c. o. TODD LAWN MOWERATTACHMENT Filed spt. 2s, 195s 2 sheets-sheet 2 C24r/D' Q ToppyPaanadreb. 13, l1940 UNITED `STATES PATENT YOFFICE i u u 2,190,578 l hc n LAWNV MoWEa ATTACHMENT l Claude 0. Todd, Washington, D. C.Application september 26, 1939, serial ofzecrz comms.` (o1. 56;;238)

vThis invention relates to lawn mowers and vmore particularly to acutting attachment lfor lawn mowers adapted to be used in cutting talltough` grass or weeds in advance of the usual cutting operation of amower, yboth cutting operations being performed by a single movementofthe mower. v l v Heretcfore, the primary defect in the conventionallawn `mower vof the rotary blade or`reel type has been due tothe`inability of the mower to cut long stemmed grass, weeds or the like,such tall growths being bent over or knocked down by the cutting reelwithoutbeing brought between the blade and the ledger plate.

when cuttingv tall grass and weeds, the mower only partly performs itsfunction and leaves the lawn in an unsightly condition. Tall grass alsotends to clog the driving mechanism for the cutting reel and impairsrapid cutting of the lawn.l

The eld of utility of this type of mower is thus more or less limited tothe cutting of relatively short grass. degree when the grassisrelatively short except for certainl growths such as weeds, which havegrown to a height vapproxir'nately equal to they `distance of the reelaxisabove the ground,these tall weeds or the like remaining uncut by themower, i

In my prior Patent No. 2,150,085, patented March 7, 1939, `'I have shownand described an attachment for lawn mowers which overcomes the abovedescribed defects by providing-for the` cutting of two swaths, oneabovethe other, the iirst being at the proper level to cut the tallgrass to a level low enough to permit the second to reduce all of thegrass to the samelieightv so as to leavethe lawn in a neat and smoothcondition after having been gone over yonly once by the mower.

, The primary object of the present invention,y

is to improve upon the construction of the attachment disclosed inmyprior patent by prof viding a more compact unit, having fewer `parts andwhich may be constructed more economi` cally without sacricing any ofits efficiency.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an eicientcutting attachment which may be attached to anyV standard lawn mowerwhether it be power driven or manually operated and when used inconnection with a manually operated mower, maybe operated with a minimumexpenditure of energy. v

A still further object-of the present invention is to provide ,a cutterattachment which isrela- Thesame results occur to a lesser tively simpleinconstruction and which can be readily disassembled to permit cleaning.

'Other objects and advantages reside `in certain novel features' oftheconstructiom arrangement and combination of4 parts which will beherein- 5 `a-ftermore fully described and particularly pointed out inthe appended claims, reference being had to the `accompanyingdrawingsforming a part of this specification, and in which Figure lis a sideelevation of the cutter alt-410 Ytachment secured to the iront cross barof a standard lawnr mower,v `only 'a portion of the mower-being shown;

Figure 2 is a top or plan view of the attachment, only a portion of thelawn mower cross bar '15 being shown; l l

Figure Bis a front view of the supporting structure of'the attachmenttaken on the lline 3 3 of FigureZ;

vFigure 4 is a vertical cross-sectional viewof the "20 drive mechanismtaken on the lined-4 of Figure 2; f

Figure 5 is a similar View taken on the line 5`-*5 of Figure 4. n

Referring` to the drawings` in detail wherein 525 vlike referencenumerals refer y to c like parts lthroughout the' several views, thecutting attachment forming lthe subject matter of the present invention`is shownmounted on the front yspacing bar of a lawn mower.` The lawnmower 30 'may be of standard constructionand need not be specificallyshown or described except in so `iar as it pertains to the presentAcutting attachl', l are rigidly mounted to the rear endsoi arms fm c Illand 5 and have vertically inclined supporting rbars 8, 8 pivotallymountedthereon and retained against separation by means of cotter pinsla, '1a. The vertical supporting Vbars 8, 8 are slightly longer than thearms li and 5 andv terminatein 45 'curved portions, 9 for a purpose tobe described. l

Thesupporting bars 8, @also include meansfor mounting the attachment tothe crossbar i. The bars are-slotted as seen at l0, ID through whichthreaded 1Ubolts l l, il extend." Plate members P50 i2, l2 are providedas retaining means for the` boltsi, It is readily `apparent that theconstruction of the Aattaching means is such as to permitreadyattachment and detachment of lthe cutter and also provide foradjustment :of Vthe angular `55,

inclination of bars 3, 8 and vertical adjustment of arms 4 and 5. Thusit may be seen that the cutter may be used with any size lawn mower. Itmay in some instances, be desirable to use the cutter without the mower.When this is to be done, it would be a simple matter to provide adetachable handle arrangement to be connected to the supporting frame todrive the attachment.

Referring to Figures 4 and 5 in detail wherein is shown the drivingvmechanism for operating the cutter blade, the frame member 3 comprisesan integrally cast housing member i3 having a spacing member lll a partthereof. A bearing member l5 is centrally disposed within the housingmember and is horizontally bored as seen at I6 to receive shaft memberIl. face of member I5 is cut out as` at i8 to receive the lower end i9of vertical shaft. 2li. The up-y per part ofspacer lil is bored at 2l topermit the shaft 2U to pass therethrough. The shaft 26 includes anintegrally formed supporting member 22 having a fiat upper surface onwhich the cutter blade 23 is rigidly mounted by means of screws 22. Athreaded member 25 is mounted, at the upper` end of shaft 2i) andalthough primarily intended for ornamental purposes, will `function asan additional retaining means for blade 23v if screws 24 work loose.

A bevel pinion 26 surrounds shaft 2l) adjacent vits lower end Within thehousing member and is so mounted ,with respect to the shaft as to berotatable therewith vbut maybe removed to permit ready separation of theparts for the purpose of cleaning' the unit. I A loosely mounted spacingcollar 2.7i is provided above the gear to space the gear from thespacer.

vA pair.of friction wheels 28 and 29 are secured to shaft Il' wso as tolie closely adjacent the spacing member lll and are so mounted as to bereadily detachable from the shaft. To accomplish this, end, wheel Z128vhas an integral hub portion 3l] formed thereon through which a screwmember! is ,threaded, the screw member cooperating with the shaft l'l tolock the wheel to the shaft. y The wheel 29 also includes a hub` portion32 and a screw 33 for removably securing wheel 20 to the shaft Il'. Itis to be understood, however, that only one of the lwheels needberemovably securedto the shaft with the other wheel permanentlyattached to the shaft. Thisl construction would permit separation of theparts for cleaning purposes.

The wheel 29has a bevelled gear 3l integrally formed onits innersurface. The teeth of kthis gear are in mesh with the teeth of thepinion gear 26. In this respect it is to be noted that portion l5 isreduced on the side adjacentwheel l29 to accommodate the bevelledgear3,4, as seen in Figure 5. 1 .Y

The wheels 29 and 3E! have their outer circumferential edges rounded asat 35 to prevent destruction of the lawn grass. The outercircumferential surfaces of the wheels are suitably grooved to increasethe bearing friction of the wheels. From the foregoing description it4will be seen thatthe cutting attachment lforming the subject matter ofthe present invention is in the form of an attachment which may beconnected to the mower or removed therefrom as desired. During thenormal operation of the mower, wheels 28 and 29 rotate, thus rotatingshaft 20 by means of the gear and pinion connection and causing blade 23to rotate in a horizontal planein advance ofthe mower reel. When bothcutter and The upper sur- -ner surface` of said wheel, -mounted on saidframe member, a bevel pinion land it is desired to complete the cuttingof the grass with the mower reel alone. To attain this end, it is onlynecessary to pivot the attachment about shafts l, 1 and rest arms l and5 against 'the supporting bars 8, 8 thus supporting the attachment in aninoperative position as seen in dotted lines in Figure 1. The curvedportions 9 vact as a support for the cutter blade 23.

It is readily apparent that in order to obtain the maximum eciency forthe cutter attachment, the blade should rotate at a relatively high rateof speed. As pointed out in my prior patent referred to above,experimentation has shown that a rate of speed of twelve revolutions ofthe cutter blade for every revolution of the lawn mower wheels willproduce maximum efficiency. In the present case the diameter of thesmall wheels is approximately one-third the diameter of the large wheels2. The ratio of gears 3ft and 26 is four to one. It will be obvious,therefore, that for every revolution of the mower wheels, the blade willrotate twelve times.

Thus it will be seen that the construction yherein shown and describedis well adapted to accomplish the objects of the present invention. Itwill be understood, however, that the invention may be embodiedotherwise than here shown and that in the embodiments illustrated,certain changes in the construction may be made.

Therefore, I do not wish to be limited precisely to the constructionherein shown except as may be required by the appended claims consideredwith reference to the prior art.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

l. An attachment for lawn mowers comprising a supporting frame member, ahorizontal shaft mounted in said frame member, a wheel mounted on saidshaft, a bevelled gear on the ina vertical shaft mounted on the verticalshaft cooperating with the bevelled gear to impart rotation to said ver-,tical shaft, and a cutter blade mounted on the upper end of saidvertical shaft, said wheel being movable along the ground to impartrotation to the cutter blade, said cutter blade being rotatable abovethe plane of the horizontal shaft.

2. An attachment for lawn mowers comprising a supporting frame member, ahorizontal shaft mounted in said frame member, a wheel mounted on saidshaft, a vertical shaft mounted on said frame member, means on saidwheel cooperating 'with said vertical shaft to lcause rotation thereof,means cooperating with said wheel to substantially enclose said shaftrotating means, a

cutter blade mounted at the upper end of the vertical shaft, said wheelbeing movable along the ground to impart rotation to the cutter blade,said lcutter blade being rotatable above the plane of the horizontalshaft.

3. An attachment for a lawn mower comprising supporting means, ahorizontal shaft mounted on said means, a pair of wheels mounted on saidshaft, said wheels and supporting means forming an enclosed housing, avertical shaft mounted in through the housing,

said housing and having its upper .end projecting a cutter blade mountedat the upper end of the vertical shaft and lying in a single plane abovethe wheels, and means within the housing operated by rotation of thewheels to rotate the cutter blade.

4. An attachment for lawn mowers comprising a supporting frame, ahorizontal shaft mounted on said frame, a pair of wheels mounted on saidshaft, said wheels and supporting frame forin-` ingk a substantiallyenclosed casing, a vertical shaft passing through an opening in saidcasing lawn mower, said supporting frame adapted to be swung about itspivot to rest on the vertically inclined` bar.

6. An attachment for a lawn mower providedV with a horizontal cross barcomprising a pair of said cross bar, the upperends of said inclined barsextending rearwardlyof the cross bar and having rearwardlyextendingextensions, a supporting frame pivotally connected to the lowerends of the inclined bars, a horizontally operating cutter blade mountedat the front end of the supporting frame, means mounted on thesupporting frame for operating said cutter blade in advance of the lawnmowerpsaid supporting 3 `mounted at the `front end of the supportingframe, means mounted on the supporting frame for operating said cutterblade in advance of the n vertically inclined supporting bars clamped toiframe adapted to be swung about its pivotal connections to reston thevertically `inclined bars,

the extensions functioning as a support for the cutter blade.

CLAUDE O. TODD.

